Post navigation

Today In Mets History: Tom Seaver Win Rookie Of Year Award

In 1967, New York Mets’ icon Tom Seaver began his journey on becoming “The Franchise,’’ when he was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year, an award he said he cherished more than his All-Star appearance that summer.

SEAVER: Begins journey to greatness.

“This is a bigger thrill to me than being named to the All-Star team,’’ Seaver said at the time. “You only get one chance to be Rookie of the Year. If you’re good you can make the All-Star team several times in your career.’’

Seaver made it a dozen times.

In winning the award, Seaver became the first Met to win a postseason honor and the first ever player from a last-place team.

The Mets lost 101 games in 1967, but the addition of Seaver was the key move in the franchise becoming a winner.

That season, Seaver set franchise at the time with 16 wins, 18 complete games, 170 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA.

Seaver won three Cy Young Awards and finished second two other times in a career that featured winning 311 games with a 2.86 ERA and an incomprehensible 231 complete games and 61 shutouts. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 with a record 98.8 percent of the vote.

I’m afraid that if we trade a good young starting pitcher, the fellow we part with will be a raucous success for his new team. I’m not comparing any of these guys to Tom Terrific, but like Tom, whoever we deal, will thrive, if pried from Mets control. This is a fear I live with every day, and it becomes overwhelming.

Here’s an idea. Something that will never happen. Just a relatively bush-league-scenario I came up with, due to the NYMess’ situation. 3 starters, and 2 combo’s. I’m grasping for straws, going outside the box, holding on to the hope we do not deal Montero, who’s reportedly the chip we’ll part with in regards to acquiring a big bat through trade. It’s just a normal november pipe dream from a baseball junky, nothing that will ever happen.

Niese and Gee get you 200 IP or thereabouts. Zack Wheeler will go about 170 IP, and Noah(heat)+Torres(control) will give us 240 IP, and Montero(Control)+ Mejia(Heat) will give us 240IP.” If we are contenders, come July, and our good young starters are on pace to reach innings limits, they can reverse roles with there partner. And, obviously each guy will be competing for a future starting role.”

Lets just say Niese has a career year, Dillon Gee remains the same, and Zack Wheeler improves slightly. Not that much of a stretch, obviously I’m wearing rose collered glasses but not that much of a stretch. If so fill in the blanks. W-L, IP, ERA.

MLB service time aside you can’t get any cheaper. Question. What would you percieve the value of 2 FA SP who could go 240 IP while having the stuff of Montero/Mejia, Noah/Tores?

Heading into 2015, with Harvey in hand, we’ll get a good gauge of who will follow Matt to the promise land. Obviously you’d think it would be 4 of these 5 Gee/Niese/Wheeler/Noah/Montero, but this is the M*E*T*S*, and something always goes wrong so Mejia and or Toress could easily be in that mix, for competitive and/or health reasons.

Benefits
A) Cheapest possible scenario for rotation, allows money to fortify pen.
B) On a major league stage we can evaluate 7 SP, and how they fit into future plans
C) If we contend, this scenario, allows the team that got you there, to finish the season, and this despite having at least 4 pitchers(Wheeler/Montero/Noah/Mejia) with relatively harsh innings limits in ’14.
D) We’ll get on average 6 IP in 3-of-5 starts, and an average of 8 IP the other 2, while using 7 arms that have defined roles to fill 6 spots. Normal convention goes with 6 guys. 5 starters and 1 long guy.
E)This should keep our fantastic pen well rested, compared to most.
F) The value of Montero/Noah/Mejia/Toress soars if they prove succecssful, and since there set up for success, having less stress/pressure than in a conventional scenario, one could argue this is a plausable way to raise there value, as well as showcase there talent for both the Mets as well as other teams, on a major league stage.

I had a list of benefits that were clear, coherent, and strategic, but could not articulate the way I intended when I began to write this comment. Oh well, the benifits are up there, just really scattered and incoherent, sry.

Brian Wilson, if deemed healthy will signed and close out games. Bobby 100 will be the 8th inning guy, Vic Black and Gonzolez German can be matchup wizards from the rightside, and Josh Edgin and Mike Gonzolez will be matchup wizzards from the left side.” So there’s a ton of good scenarios for the duel combo’s. Montero goes 5+, lefty up, Edgin in, Edgin out, and Mejia to the 8th or 9th. Just one example.
13 man staff. Some teams do this, just not many NL teams.
Gee, Niese, Wheeler, Montero, Noah, Mejia, Toress, Wilson, Parnell, Black, German, Edgin, M. Gonzolez. That’s 26 million dollar’s worth of flamethowers, and/or control freaks.
Lagares/Murphy/Wright/Cruz/Perralta/Davis/dArnaud/den Dekker/
BrownOF/Young(OF/IF)Flores(IF)Recker(C)

Like I said to start. This will never happen, but if I were the GM, I would do this, thinking all along that I will get superb value out of both duel combos, to go along with the other benefits mentioned above.

Thanks for asking Dave. Obviously this will never happen, just a normal november pipe dream, but, all I want to do is have a good baseball conversation, realistic or fantasy based, I don’t care. Now, in this scenario, I am the GM and the head coach. And Gee, Neise, and Wheeler will go about buisness as usual****below the P.S.***

For the other 2 spots in the rotation I will ask A) Montero+Mejia to give me upwards of 160 pitches per start, and B) Noah+Toress to give me upwards of 160 pitches in there spot. 100 from one 60 from another, 90 from one 70 from another, etc. As the GM and head coach I will live and die with these 160 pitches, and will not look for help from the pen, unless it is a save situation.

****P.S.***** This will allow a fresh, hopefully fantastically fortified pen, to finish off games for Gee, Niese, and Wheeler.

Recap In this scenario we use 7 guys to fill 6 roles. The 6 roles being 5 starters and 1 long relief pitcher. As the GM and head coach, I am willing to go with a 13 man pitching staff. Basically we get to see 7 starters every 5 games. Since all 7 will be throwing upwards of 80 pitches. Gee, Niese, and Wheeler, obviously much more than 80. The competetition will be fierce for defined starting roles, but the stress minimal due to piggybacking. I’m thinking the 26 million dollar, 13 man staff, could potentially dominate, as each guy is either a flamethrower with good control, or just simply a control freak, and while pitching in cavernous Citi Field, a fantastic asset.